If anyone appreciates the vicissitudes of doing business in Russia, it is BP boss Bob Dudley.

As the boss of now dissolved joint venture TNK-BP, he fled the country in mortal fear following a spat with the oil giant’s oligarch partners in 2008.

Yet for all the stress that exile caused him, the defining act of his tenure at the helm of BP has been the decision to jump into bed with Kremlin-backed Rosneft.

Difficult: BP was forced to admit yesterday that with EU and US sanctions against Russia over Ukrainian intervention, this is a risky partnership

BP was forced to admit yesterday that with EU and US sanctions against Russia over Ukrainian intervention, this is a risky partnership.

It said: ‘Any future erosion of our relationship with Rosneft, or the impact of further economic sanctions, could adversely impact our business and strategic objectives in Russia, the level of our income, production and reserves, our investment in Rosneft and our reputation.’

But Dudley, presenting a strong set of half-year results, couldn’t have been clearer about how he sees the balance between risk and reward.

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‘Russia is the largest oil and gas producing nation on the planet and the world is going to need 40 per cent more energy between now and 2035,’ he said.

‘That’s why you’ll see many, many international companies working in Russia. Obviously, we and others will undoubtedly abide by any sanctions.’ If BP has made a Faustian pact, as has been suggested in some quarters, it is not working out too badly.

This assessment is, so far at least, backed up by the numbers.

Profits at risk: BP said sanctions on Rosneft, in which BP has a 20% stake, had not affected business so far

While BP’s 20 per cent stake in Rosneft has fallen in value by more than £1billion in a month, the partnership remains a money-spinner.

Rosneft dividends added £271million to cash flow last year and a further £407million this year.

Even forgetting the divi, BP’s share of Rosneft profit in the second quarter was a cool £600million.

That isn’t to say that BP’s warning about Russian risk is a mere disclaimer.

Yesterday afternoon the EU imposed sanctions applicable to the energy sector that include the supply of technology on oil projects.

BP has made much of the know-how it brings to Rosneft’s table.

The technology embargo could threaten long-term plans to explore the Arctic, and certainly risks delaying the more immediate agreement to exploit shale oil reserves in the Volga-Urals region.

But oil companies work over very long time horizons, with individual projects sometimes taking decades to come to fruition.

Dudley, pictured, pointed out that BP has stood firm through turmoil in countries such as Egypt and Argentina, neither of which has nearly as much to offer by way of resources as Russia.

He was also minded to point to Iraq, where BP is facing a different threat but a similar dynamic.Incursions by terror group ISIS have hardly touched BP so far, but the fact that the firm briefly pulled out non-essential staff indicates that it is approaching the security situation carefully.

Yet the prize, as in Russia, appears worth the risk – its Rumaila operation is the second largest producing oilfield on the planet.

It makes a change that all eyes should be facing East, when so much of BP’s recent pain has emanated from across the Atlantic in the US.

The company is in limbo when it comes to liabilities relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.

It increased its provision for spill costs yesterday by £165million, mostly lawyers’ fees, taking the running total to £25.4billion.

But BP will not know for some time whether it will end up having to set even more aside to pay claims.

It has £390million left in its Gulf claims trust fund, headroom that will run out swiftly if it cannot halt ‘absurd’ claims by businesses whose losses were not caused by the spill.

The US Supreme Court will be the arbiter of that and BP can do little but wait. In the meantime, it is trying to focus on the positives. Ignore the shadows cast by the Cold War superpowers and there are some shafts of light beaming down, not least the 33 per cent rise in second-quarter profit to £1.9billion.

BP is well on track to meet its cash flow target of £18billion this year, having reached £9.5billion after six months.

It is also a leaner, more agile company after the Gulf spill forced it to get rid of £22.4billion of assets, while it is on track to achieve a further £5.9billion of sales by the end of 2015.

While production is down slightly, it has largely sacrificed low-margin barrels to focus on lucrative prospects in the Gulf of Mexico and Angola.

What it needs now is to spend less time thinking about the White House and the Kremlin.